Fort Wayne Football Club and Ruoff Mortgage held a ribbon-cutting ceremony before Saturday’s match to celebrate the formal grand opening of Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, the state-of-the-art facility at 6411 Bass Road that is the largest outdoor venue in Northeast Indiana.
In attendance were Fort Wayne FC Majority Owner Mark Music, Ruoff Mortgage President Blake Music, Ben Burkle of Greater Fort Wayne, and various members of the club and stadium staff. They cut the ribbon in front of the new scoreboard, which is the second widest in the state of Indiana, and then the club defeated the Spokane Velocity 3-0 in front of a crowd of 4,493 on the Fourth of July.
“Hopefully this is the beginning in terms of us establishing a beachhead location where people can come together,” Mark Music said. “They can forget about their problems in their life and join as one, root for the club.
“We’ll have all kinds of other things that we’re going to do, that we’re going to hopefully have people gathering for, (such as) weddings, concerts, business functions, festivals, all kinds of stuff. Over the next two or three years, you’ll see a number of events where we’re doing something other than playing soccer.”
For now, soccer has been the only attraction at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium and it’s been a big one. Fort Wayne FC is 3-0-4 playing at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, though capacity at the stadium had been limited due to construction prior to Saturday.
Ruoff Mortgage Stadium is a 100% privately funded project that didn’t cost a cent of taxpayer money.
“One of the things that I would like, and I kind of commented on it early, is it would be nice that when people come through those gates that there’s no politics involved,” Mark Music said. “Even if they’ve got differences day-to-day with their political views and stuff, I hope that we come in here and kind of come together and then there’s a kind of a higher overarching piece of that.”
Ruoff Mortgage and Fort Wayne FC came to a multiyear naming-rights partnership agreement for the stadium in April.
About Fort Wayne Football Club
Fort Wayne Football Club, founded in 2019, is a professional soccer club playing its first season in USL League One in 2026. The club is building a state-of-the-art, soccer-specific stadium, Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, that will open at Bass Road and I-69 in 2026. In pre-professional USL League Two, Fort Wayne Football Club won division titles in 2023, 2024 and 2025. For more information, visit FortWayneFC.com.
About Ruoff Mortgage
Ruoff Mortgage is a full-service residential mortgage company with 60+ retail locations and originates in 21 states through their online consumer direct division. They have been ranked on the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America list for ten consecutive years and have appeared in the Top 100 Mortgage Companies in America and Top Mortgage Employer lists by several industry publications. Ruoff Mortgage has a 98.5% customer satisfaction rating, as compiled by CX leader, Experience.com. www.ruoff.com